Kipruto in the steeplechase at the 2012 World Junior Championships
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Personal information | |
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Born | December 8, 1994 |
Height | 1.67 m (5 ft 5 1⁄2 in) |
Weight | 58 kg (128 lb) |
Sport | |
Country | Kenya |
Sport | Athletics |
Event(s) | 3000m steeplechase |
Conseslus Kipruto (born 8 December 1994) is a Kenyan middle distance runner who competes in the steeplechase. He won the 2011 World Youth and 2012 World Junior titles in the steeplechase and ranks second on the all-time junior lists with 8:01.16. His personal best of 8:00.12 minutes for the 3000 m steeplechase was set at the Birmingham Diamond League event in 2016.
Kipruto quickly rose through the younger categories of the sport, beginning from 2010. He won the Kenyan youth trials in the 2000 metres steeplechase with a world-leading mark of 5:29.3 minutes. At the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics he and teammate Gilbert Kiplangat Kirui ran away from the pack from the very start. Kipruto edged out his compatriot with a time of 5:28.65 minutes to take the gold medal and move up to seventh on the all-time youth rankings. He debuted in the 3000 metres steeplechase in Europe later that year, running 8:27.30 minutes to win at the Stadionfest Königs Wusterhausen.
At the start of 2012 he entered two high-profile cross country races, winning the Lotto Cross Cup de Hannut and placing second at the Cross de San Sebastián. He moved up to the 3000 m distance in the steeplechase and placed second at the Kawasaki Super Meet in Japan before running 8:08.92 minutes for fifth in his IAAF Diamond League debut in Doha. He beat Kirui to the Kenyan junior title and his teammate helped pace him at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where Kipruto won Kenya's 13th straight title in the event and ranked fourth on the all-time junior lists with a run of 8:06.10 minutes (also a championship record). He had his first big senior win soon after, beating Paul Kipsiele Koech at the Herculis 2012 Diamond League meet in a personal best of 8:03.49 minutes. He ranked sixth in the world that year. He also was runner-up at the Memorial van Damme and had a 3000 metres flat best of 7:44.09 minutes at the Rieti Meeting.